Devil House: Deck of Haunts
Play your cards right and punish those trespassing in your haunted house.
‣ Deck of Haunts
From: Mantis, DANGEN Entertainment
Platforms: PC
Release: Q1 2025
Steam Page • Demo Video • Developer Site
The day turns into night with another fresh crop of uninvited guests.
What distinguishes haunted houses from other horror tropes? The idea of being trapped with some kind of evil is a pretty chilling prospect, and in its purest form, the entire structure is out to get whoever dares cross its threshold. There might be multiple entities roaming about, but the whole place is in on it.
No sane person wants to get caught in that situation. Yet, they keep coming, night after night, trying to find the house's dark heart. Unfortunately for them, you've got a handful of terror in the haunted house deck-builder, Deck of Haunts.
Mechanically, Deck of Haunts isn't complex. You are a creepy, abandoned structure, hiding a demonic heart deep inside it. Every night, humans trespass, and you try to stop them through insanity or death—the goal is to survive several nights as the arrivals grow in numbers and boldness.
Playing in turns, you're dealt a hand of cards with which you unleash attacks, buffs, and traps, then the trespassers roam to adjacent rooms and explore deeper into your dark corners. If they encounter your heart, you take permanent damage.
Once you take care of all the invaders, the night ends and day begins. During the daytime, you can purchase new cards for your deck. You also purchase building cards that you use to expand the house. You can add staple rooms such as living rooms and kitchens, expanding existing rooms or adding more rooms to confuse visitors. There are also special rooms that provide perks, such as the haunted bell tower and the phobia room.
Building rooms and maintaining special rooms cost essence, which you collect by eliminating the humans. But run out of essence and you lose. Once you are done building, the day turns into night with another fresh crop of uninvited guests.
You must handle these encounters with a little forethought. If someone sees another character go insane or die, they will try and escape, which can significantly escalate the next invasion. So, the focus is on separating the characters and eliminating them without witnesses, and before they reach your heart (in which case, they will rush for the exit, so you need to stop them quickly).
Overall, Deck of Haunts is not very challenging. The demo's crowds didn't grow overwhelmingly big, and the various cards offer potent ways to launch attacks and turn the odds in your favour. Once your house transforms into a network of interconnected rooms, the only genuine threats are special characters who proceed directly for your heart. You do take damage, though, and if you are not attentive, a character can escape.
📽 Demo Snapshot: If you enter, you will not leave
But the underlying gameplay structure is solid, and it's not hard to imagine things becoming riotous in the full release. Besides, Deck of Haunts has great atmosphere, brought to life with detailed art and a spooky soundtrack. The card artwork is particularly striking, and at some levels the game takes itself very seriously. It's not a comedic or ironic experience.
At the same time, Deck of Haunts isn't trying to be hard or technical. The card-based system is intuitive, and it's fun to try out different cards or to add and rearrange rooms. This is what ultimately sells the experience. A haunted house should be a serious affair, a final destination for the unprepared. Especially when you are in charge of the evil that lurks behind those walls.
Deck of Haunts is due for release in Quarter 1 of 2025.
Explore The Game with Youtube Chapters:
📽 00:47 Night falls...
📽 02:28 Deck and house building
📽 03:50 The second night
📽 06:07 Adding a phobia room
📽 08:35 Stone masons!
📽 12:45 More unwelcome guests
📽 16:15 They just keep coming
📽 20:40 Let's expand
📽 22:06 Fresh victims
📽 27:16 Step into the trap
📽 29:36 They found the heart!
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